Was here a while ago but never got
round to placing an order. The delay's been good though â€“ lots of
new hardware to choose from.

I really like the 550d case. Looks good
and is said to be really quiet. Of course reduced airflow surely
results in higher temps so I'd like to add a couple of extra fans.
The Noctua 140 mm look good. If so, where should they be placed? What
should the configuration be? I guess a base inflow and a top outflow
is logical. Would I be able to control the fans independently (I
expect I'll choose the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe if that makes a difference)?

Also, I'll probably go with one GTX 670
(for gaming at 1920 x 1080). I have read however that some of them
(at least) make a hum or whine that the 680 doesn't. Can anyone here
confirm that? If I were to substitute an aftermarket cooler how would
DS's warranty be affected?

Go with the HafX case and save yourself alot of trouble. The 550D is very quiet as-is. Once you remove the top and side acoustic sound deading panels and add fans your quiet is gone. I haven' t heard of problems with the gtx670 but can't say for sure. Adding an after market cooler will not void warranty as long as it doesn't cause other problems. Hope this helps.

Correct, the 550D is designed to be quiet, but, you don't want additional fans to make it into something that it really wasn't designed for. Even if you didn't go with the fan upgrades, you would still have a quiet and awesome system that would not overheat. Our team will stress-test and benchmark your configuration before we ship it anyways too!

Its quiet. The airflow is fine for a 4.7GHz OC system running a GTX 680. I do have a Corsair H100 Liquid CPU Cooler SET TO THE MIDDLE SETTING. On high the fans ramp-up to fast and it does get louder for no reason.

I play WOW on ultra and /console maxfps on 250 FPS for hours and hours.

Skyrim on ultra for days and you can just barely hear the fans.

Its a beast, and its polite. ;) If Alex asks nicely I will post pictures as well.

There is some discussion about humming noise coming from the 670 fan. It is quit loud with some cards. The problem seems to be the EVGA 670 SC card. I didn't see any complaints with the EVGA 670. Nvidia has been exchanging the EVGA 670 SC with a EVGA 670 FTW as a cure for the problem. Not all 670 SC cards are having the problem.

If you want a 670 card then try and get the 670 FTW and I don't think you will have any problems. Even with the 670 SC I doubt that DS would send you one that has a noise problem. They hear these cards every day and would hear the problem right off. If you order from DS I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I just took a look at the build that Krav_Mind did. The H100 is no long available. The Vortex 240 is basically the same design. Make sure you don't get the Intel 510 SSD. You want the Intel 520 SSD. The D14 is not noisy.

In my opinion the 550D is a case built for looks, air cooling and maybe one GPU. Not sure about the GPUs with the new, better design of the GPUs. Most of their heat is being dumped out board now.

1, The H100 is no long available. The Vortex 240 is basically the same design.

2. Make sure you don't get the Intel 510 SSD. You want the Intel 520 SSD.

3. The D14 is not noisy.

4. If you get the EVGA 670 2Gb than ask for a EVGA 670 2Gb FTW model. DS doesn't always provide EVGA cards and what ever they offer other than the EVGA 670 SC card would be OK.

In my opinion the 550D is a case built for looks, air cooling and maybe one GPU. Not sure about the GPUs with the new, better design of the GPUs. Most of the heat from the GPUs are being dumped out board now.

Thanks guys - I'm learning a lot here! I was going to place my order today but if there are issues with the Noctua I'll have to put a bit more thought into it.

Alex, if I get the DS Vortex 240 mm, would DS be able to substitute corresponding Noctua fans for the Vortex stock fans? The Noctua fans are said to be excellent from both the cooling and sound pov. Also my wife likes the color (a vitally important consideration, particularly in light of the lack of windows in the 550d...but still).

Thanks for the quick reply. Alex, if i get the Vortex how loud would it be for a stage two overclock? From what the others have said the original H100 had a button and the middle setting was appropriate. How is the Vortex controlled? I guess it isn't run at full speed since this would defeat the purpose of the quiet 550d.

I just had a look at deltaxi65's review which was helpful. He has the Vortex 240 mm in the 550d case and was impressed by the quietness of the system. Great!

Hopefully near to last question: can DS install the GS800 PSU such that the light faces upwards into the case? I would prefer that. (Although the 550d has no windows I may, depending on what I'm doing, run with the side panel off). I know this means that the cables will exit the PSU on the left side so a greater length will be visible but that doesn't bother me.

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